The Plantin Press

The Courtyard of the Plantin-Moretus Museum. Photograph by Catherine Sutherland

The Library at the Plantin-Moretus Museum. Photograph by Catherine Sutherland

This September I visited the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp, the historic printing press and UNESCO world heritage site. It was founded the 16th century by Christopher Plantin and was subsequently taken over by his son-in-law, Jan Moretus, and later his grandson, Balthasar Moretus. My visit inspired me to write about a selection of books in Magdalene’s Old Library that originated from the famous printing press.

The original printing press room and equipment. Photograph by Catherine Sutherland

The most famous publication from the Plantin Press is the ‘Biblia Polyglotta’, (1568-1573), the masterpiece of Christopher Plantin’s career. We are fortunate to have a set of these Bibles here at Magdalene.

The Biblia Polyglotta, otherwise known as the ‘Antwerp Polyglot’ or ‘Plantin Polyglot’, contains translations of the Bible in five languages: Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldean…

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This is the journal of Jonathan Kearns Rare Books & Curiosities, and all who sail in her. Information, updates, rantings, musings and pretty pictures related (loosely I would imagine) to the world of rare and antiquarian books will be brought to you by a number of different personalities, some of whom cohabit in the same person's head. We welcome queries, comments and contributions of virtually any description, and in return we will attempt to rein in our multitudinous personality disorders and deliver wonders and joys beyond compare. At least that's the plan.
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This entry was posted on Friday, November 21st, 2014 at 2:55 pm and posted in General Madness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.